U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder dispatched the U.S. Marshals Service to
protect “appropriate people and facilities around the nation” in the
wake of the killing Sunday morning of late-term abortion provider Dr.
George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas.

Likely top candidate for federal protection: Boulder physician Warren Hern. Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, said that Tiller’s assassination is the “absolutely inevitable
consequence” of decades of anti-abortion fanaticism.

“Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination
threat for decades,” Hern said Sunday afternon. “The anti-abortion
movement message is, ‘Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you,’
and they do. This is a fascist movement.”

“The murder of Doctor George Tiller is an abhorrent act
of violence, and his family is in our thoughts and prayers at this
tragic moment. Federal law enforcement is coordinating with local law
enforcement officials in Kansas on the investigation of this crime, and
I have directed the United States Marshals Service to offer protection
to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation. The
Department of Justice will work to bring the perpetrator of this crime
to justice. As a precautionary measure, we will also take appropriate
steps to help prevent any related acts of violence from occurring.”

“My family is terrified,”
Hern told the Wall Street Journal after Tiller was gunned down in a
Lutheran church. Hern said both he and Tiller have “been targeted by
name by anti-abortion activists who call them baby killers and mass
murderers.”

“They want the doctors dead, and they invite people to assassinate
us. No wonder that this happens,” Hern said. “I am next on the list.”

A call to the Colorado District of the U.S. Marshals Service wasn’t returned Sunday evening.

Anti-abortion activist and Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry
has had Hern in his sights for decades. Footage aired by the CBS news
program 60 Minutes in 1992 showed Terry outside the Boulder Abortion
Clinic “asking his followers to pray for either the salvation or the
death of the clinic’s doctor,” correspondent Lesley Stahl reported.

60 Minutes then aired video of Terry stating “But pray
that this family will either be converted to God or that calamity will
strike him.” Stahl added, “The doctor he’s talking about is Warren
Hern, who runs the clinic. He’s been a major target of pro-life groups
for years because he’s one of only three doctors in the country who
specialize in late-term abortions.”

Terry emerged again the next year calling for “judgment” for Hern.
As the Pope visited Denver and anti-abortion activists failed to drum
up the protests they’d envisioned, the New York Times reported:

The leader of the anti-abortion group, Randall Terry,
appeared on Christian radio stations this week to assail a Boulder
doctor, Warren Hern, as a “baby killer” and issued what Dr. Hern
considered a dangerous threat. Dr. Hern has criticized the tactics of
the anti-abortionist protesters.

In his radio appearances, Mr. Terry said of Dr. Hern: “I hope
someday he is tried for crimes against humanity, and I hope he is
executed. I make no bones about it friends, it is a biblical part of
Christianity that we pray for either the conversion or the judgment of
the enemies of God.”

“He meant only that God would deal with him,” a Philip Faustian
said. His group distributed fliers titled “Expose the Killer” that
included a map to Swedish Medical Center, where Hern worked at the time.

“He meant only that God would deal with him,” a Philip Faustian said. His group distributed fliers titled “Expose the Killer” that included a map to Swedish Medical Center, where Hern worked at the time.